There's A New Spooky Escape Room Bus Driving Around L.A.

There are a lot of escape rooms in Los Angeles, but now we've got one that can come to you. Mobile Escape Room LA is a spooky puzzle game inside of a former tour bus. Mobile Escape Room LA comes from Dr. Jessica Carey, her brother John Carey, Jr., and Ryan Markley. They started out playing more traditional escape rooms, and Jessica Carey told LAist she noticed that they were meeting numerous people and developing a kind of special bond that only forms when trapped in a room with strangers trying to solve puzzles. She's also a psychologist with a specialty in severe mental illness, who currently works as a clinical supervisor at a group home for at-risk youth at an inpatient group home. She saw an intrinsic value in escape rooms.

"Escape rooms create an environment for friends, family, co-workers and even strangers, to come together and have an experience that no computer game could provide," Jessica Carey said. "In a time when most communication occurs through online technology, escape rooms provide an opportunity for good, old-fashioned, human-to-human contact."

Soon, the group was plotting their own escape room. John Carey and Markley are both musicians, who play in the band Old Man Markley and make guitars at De Temple Guitars in Sherman Oaks. They had access to an old tour bus that wasn't in use anymore, so they got to work and two months later, built an escape game that would come straight to its clients.

We checked it out last weekend. It's an exciting feeling when you see and hear a big bus rolling towards you and you realize it's coming for you. The basic story line is that you're participating in a sleep study. However, it doesn't take too much time to realize your gentle researchers have sinister plans and you've got to escape them before it's too late.

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Once you're inside the bus, you've got about 40 minutes to solve your way out. The previous sleep patients were apparently not so lucky, but they have left some clues to help you evade a grisly fate.

While the claustrophobic may not appreciate the tight confines of a tour bus lined with bunks, it does add a level of fun and intensity to the game to have to crawl, climb and sprawl on the bunks. For those of you worried about the scares, it's a creepy atmosphere, but don't expect the jump scares that might startle you in a haunted house. Do expect to be reaching into dark spaces and looking everywhere, from top to bottom, for clues.

For now, you can either book a game online and find the bus in a residential neighborhood in Sherman Oaks; rent the bus for a private event; or book a game online and find the bus outside of Bar One in North Hollywood on Fridays and Saturdays.

Mobile Escape Room can be booked online. Tickets are $25/person, and you can play with 2 to 6 people. Private events are $200/hour, with a 2-hour minimum.